John Brecher writes:I see almost 10,000
pictures a day, and many document some form of suffering. Some of that
suffering is incidental as people try to survive, some happens in
chaotic situations, and some is intentional. But in all of it, I've
never seen an image of such a deliberate infliction of misery.

What's
particularly effective about this picture is the baby elephant's
flinch. She knows it's going to hurt - you can see her shying away from
the blow, which is the point: to cause enough pain to break her will.

Q: What led you to this story, and how did you manage to make this picture? What were any difficulties you experienced?

A:
I've been working on documenting the plight of the Asian elephant and
their caregivers in Thailand since 2007. It started out with following
mahouts and elephants that would beg on the street in Bangkok but as the
story began revealing itself it started to become clear that the
business that surrounds elephants is responsible for a lot of the
problems. With elephant numbers on the decline for a long time in
Thailand, the supply of elephants has been coming from smugglers across
the border in Burma.

I went to Burma specifically to try and
photograph elephants being trained. I had a contact there from an
organization in Thailand but it turned out to be a bust. We drove for
hours on a motorbike through a dirt path in the jungle only to find out
that training had finished a few days before. I started asking around
and a local did some research and found out about a young elephant that
was set to be trained. We set off on another path in the jungle and
showed up and managed to sweet talk our way in. The young elephant's
mother was tied up near the training device and became really
uncomfortable when she saw what was about to happen. I've never heard an
elephant scream like that before, it felt like the ground shook and she
actually broke off her chain and charged at mahouts and myself. The
mahouts eventually scared the mother into submission and tied her up
again and then started training her baby. The baby elephant was
terrified and started crying. The biggest difficulty I experienced was
not being able to put a stop to it. There was a point when the elephant
just resigned to what was happening and stood still, the life in her
eyes disappeared. It was a look that was haunting.

Q: How common is this practice?

A:
It's a very traditional technique and quite common but it can vary in
terms of the level of violence. It's not all black and white either,
some progressive camps use positive reinforcement instead of beatings.
There was a time when foreigners could watch elephant training in
Thailand but some negative images came out and it's almost impossible as
a foreigner to see this now.

Q: Are there organizations in the region working to prevent this treatment of elephants?

Q: How can tourists visiting Thailand either be part of the problem or part of the solution?

A:
Though they are rare, supporting progressive elephant tourism companies
that have an interest in conservation is a good place to start. Try to
avoid supporting tourism that uses elephants to perform circus tricks.
These outfits almost always chain their elephants up all day separated
from one another. If you see an elephant being abused speak out and tell
the owner. I'm confident in the coming years elephant tourism will
change in Thailand and offer an alternative model to the one in place
now.

Ian, i told you once about the Baby Elephant who ran to me,at least 100 Thais ran away.I did not move, the Mother went Mad having go at anything I didt move, i had half a Beer Leo left.I can stil see the trust in both their eyes .They both stood there, there was tear in my eye.

Plaad, That baby is terrified and trying to escape, it is not a tickle but a painful torture, it is also not necessary. many elephants trained with kindness are used and they aren't the ones who go beserk and rampage on unsuspecting tourists.

c18, but I still like to eat vegitables, fish, animals etc....except the meat of human being, probably because I've never eaten it. If you let me use the signature phrase of budhist, this is the karma of us, human being.

When a carnivore makes a kill it often plays (tortures) its victim first. Apparently this releases endomorphines (endorphines) in the brain and lysolitic enzymes in the flesh, thus tenderising it.Peop[le who have survived being mauled by lions and tigers report no pain at the time and a form of mental euphoria.

C 4 Yes , maybe it is time to stop killing others, It isn't sustainable.

C 6 Ian,

I stopped eating meat after getting to know a baby bull. I don;t buy leather anymore either. I never ate Lamb and I stopped eating port a few years ago when I saw how the pigs were transported live with legs broken so as to fit into cages. Eating meat that has suffered might one day be shown to be very hazardous. I am still eating fish , but soon those will be depleted or so far polluted.

stick is better than metal rein into nose, metal nail into toe, metal mark to the bottock, if not sharpen spur into soft belly meat,,,, Animal needs such 'inhumane' treat to be tamed.Eucalyptos stick in the photo is soft wood, it is just a trickly to elephant thick leather,,,,Isan people were treated by stick by Bangkok rulers and it sketch illustration is unwittingly and repeatingly shown in the local daily, Matichon. The ruler wearing leather long boots stepping on the back of Isan people and the poor begging for life,,,,,,,,,,,

C15, animal? no I am a fish. Fish is not animal, right? I hope so. because even if I'm banned to eat animals, I can still eat fish.

Whale meat? I don't care much about the whale meat, because I was forced to eat the badly cooked one every week for school lanch.

Using both stick and carrot is more effective in taming animals, I guess. Karens know how to do the job more than the outsiders. Let them do what they have been doing in genertions. I'm sure they won't spoil their golden boys.

Plaadip. 13, " they are just animals, not human beings". So you are not also an animal? The carrot is mightier than the stick, anyone who know animals understands this. No doubt you enjoy whale meat also!

Macca, I see many Thais who are cruel to their pets, not knowingly but because they do not understand their nature. Dogs in particular are often neurotic because of the way Thais treat them. Dogs are pack animals they need firm leadership, in return they will give love and obedient attention.

c12, arrrya, sorry I meant. "they shouldn't be so cruel as to make their life so miserable."

At the end of the day, those elephatns are not pets, so they have to be trained for their jobs to serve human-beings. Otherwise, what's use?

And even if you keep them in preservation areas or something, in case the number increse to excess, you have to cull them as it happened in Africa. And I don't mind the attempt to control their population according to our convenience, because they are just animals, not human beings.

I'm not sure Karens are necessarily budhists. They could be christians or animists.

I don't have much worry about the way they treat their animals. The elephatns are the important assets for them, so they shouldn't be too cruel to make their life so msieerable. In Thai side villages, karen kids take their elephants to the water and wash them everyday. They take care of them well after the taming process is over.

What I am worring about is that they might lose their jobs because of the stupid overeaction of those animal right fanatics.

to condone cruelty to animals for simplistic reasons such as "however they are intelligent, they are different to human beings"

These show a very low level of ethics. These also show minimal thought about the justification for suffering of animals caused by people.

Just as racism is a state of mind that degrades humanity, speciesism needs to be seen as a similar issue. How can anyone who believes in karma, think it is OK for animals to suffer, if their society causes that suffering. This applies to all cultures, some are worse than others. Most of my Thai friends are animal lovers. Boys are often cruel to animals, which is understandable when they have not learned enough to know better ways to play.

c6, but it's not a meaningless violence, it's a part of dressage. Slaughtering job is smae. We should appreciate the people engaing in the business, because they did the jop which we don't wnat to do, or we want to keep out of our sight because of some hypocrirical and selfish reasons, even though we consume the products.

Plaadip, people eat pigs, dogs, elephants, chimpanzees (bush meat), whales and dolphins. sometime people eat people. All are intelligent feeling creatures, yet it is not the killing but the manner of killing which matters most, cruelty should not be part of the process.

c4, and did you read the Dahl's short sroty called "Pig"? If you imagine the scene where a 10 years old boy are being processed in a slaughterhouse, of course, it's cruel and unacceptable, though I like the nightmarish feeling of the short story. The comparisons of a dambo with a human kid" is non sense anyway. However they are intelligent, they are different from human beings. And IMHO the elephatnts is much closer to the pigs than to the human beings.

c3, Ian, is this true? If this is true, I should have a qualm when I eat pork.

"Pig intelligencePigs are sensitive inquisitive creatures, and have been proven to be more intelligent than most dogs and 3 year old children! They can be trained to respond to simple voice commands, and are easily toilet trained. Studies have revealed that pigs have a long memory and are able to focus on specific tasks even better than some primates."

yeah, they sometimes use a sickle and prick the head of the baby elephant with it, it causes a little breeding but it's OK, because the kid elephants have quite strong skin. It's a kind of rite de passage for karen to tame their elephants in order for them to live with humans. I don't think it's a big deal.

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